Baird's Tapir

The Baird’s Tapir (Tapirus Bairdii) is Costa Rica’s largest land mammal. The new world has three different species of tapirs: the Brazilian tapir, the mountain tapir and the Baird’s tapir. Originally, this animal was found throughout Costa Rica but due to heavy hunting and habitat loss it is becoming a very rare animal at a very fast rate. It was once thought this beautiful animal was related to pigs however they actually belong to the order Perrisodactyla (they are related to horses and rhinoceros). The Osa Peninsula, and especially Corcovado National Park, are known to be the best place in the country to see a Baird’s tapir in the wild. They are often seen in the area of secondary forest near the Sirena ranger station.

Tapirs are generally solitary animals and mainly active during the morning and the late afternoon although their activity patterns tend to change under influence of hunting and other human activities. Seasonal changes also influence their activity as they tend to be active throughout the day during the rainy season, when it’s cooler outside, but are found to be more active in the morning and the afternoon (the coolest parts of the day) during the dry season.

This animal is totally vegetarian; at least two thirds of its diet is leaves and stems and the remainder is fruit and bark. Charles Foerster conducted a study on the Tapir in which he managed to observe a female Baird’s tapir for 286 hours. He calculated that she spent more than 70% of her active time eating; consuming an average of fifteen kilos (33 pounds) of food a day!

At Lapa Rios, Tapirs or Danta’s (Spanish), are not frequently in the area but occasionally we find their tracks near the creeks around the lodge.